Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today I am introducing the Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act of 2007, which would establish a national program to promote the recycling of beverage containers, including bottled water, iced teas, sports drinks and carbonated beverages, by offering a national 5 cent deposit. This bill would help move the Nation towards a future of less global warming pollution by reducing the energy and related heat-trapping emissions needed to create the materials used in new beverage containers.

Twenty-five years ago, my state of Massachusetts became one of the first states to pass a state bottle bill in order to encourage the recycling of cans and bottles. Since its inception, Massachusetts' bottle law has been a tremendous success. In 2006, over 2 billion beverage containers were sold in Massachusetts and nearly 70 percent of them were recycled rather than littered or incinerated.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously called the States ``laboratories of democracy''--the places where innovative solutions to the Nation's challenges are developed. Nowhere is the States' pioneering role in our system more vital today than in the area of energy independence and global warming. On these critical issues, the States are in the vanguard of a green energy revolution. In the case of the bottle bill, 11 states have acted as laboratories for more than two decades, very successfully. Now is the time to move this important program onto the national stage.

Recycling and reusing these bottles not only reduces the amount of litter that ends up in

our streets and the amount of trash that ends up in our landfills, it also dramatically reduces the amount of global warming pollution that ends up in our atmosphere. If all of the 58 billion aluminum cans that are thrown away every year in the United States were recycled, it would cut the emissions of heat-trapping carbon pollution by nearly 6 million tons--the equivalent of the pollution from more than one million cars. Cans made from recycled aluminum use 95 percent less energy than cans manufactured with new materials.

In addition, plastic water and juice bottles have become increasingly prevalent since many state bottle bills were initially adopted. While less than half of the aluminum cans sold every year are recycled, an astounding 80 percent of the 60 billion plastic bottles sold each year are not recycled. Including plastic bottles in a national bottle bill would lead to significant savings in energy and oil consumption. One ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity and 685 gallons of oil.

I am proud to introduce this important bill today on America Recycles Day. Passing this bill would allow Congress to send the nation a global warming message in a bottle. We can still quench our thirst while reducing our thirst for energy. And we can have carbon dioxide in our fizzy drinks, while cutting down on heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this conference report.

Let me start by commending the chairman of the subcommittee, the distinguished gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Kildee, and the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from California, Mr. Miller for their work on this bill. I offer my thanks to the House and Senate conferees for bringing forth this important piece of legislation today.

In 1965, with a great deal of hard work, Head Start was created. It soon became a ``legislative Lamborghini'' of social programs, going from 0 to 561,000 thousand participants in only a few months. In the 42 years since its inception, Head Start has become the educational foundation for more than 20 million American children.

Education serves as both a ladder of opportunity and an investment in our future. Our Nation's security, economy, and position in the world all depend on the success of our education system. We must take advantage of this opportunity to fund our future.

Head Start and Early Head Start are linchpins in the effort to prepare our country's most disadvantaged children to succeed in school and life. Many studies indicate that children enrolled in Head Start make significant progress in closing the readiness gap to their more advantaged peers as they enter kindergarten.

The congressionally mandated impact study recently published its results, which noted that after less than 1 year in the program, children in Head Start had narrowed the readiness gap by 45 percent in reading skills and 28 percent in writing skills. This momentum continues well beyond the ages of 3, 4, and 5, as another large academic study has noted that Head Start graduates continue to mount academic gains well after leaving the program.

The bill we see before us today helps to raise the academic standards of American children and ensures that every child in our country has an equal opportunity to a high quality education. It aims to improve teacher quality by requiring a greater number of Head Start teachers to have a bachelor's degree and be adequately trained in early childhood development. This is clearly good news for the children that will be participating in Head Start in the future.

On multiple occasions, the President has advocated that all 3- and 4- year-old participants in Head Start should take standardized tests to assess their improvement. For President Bush, No Child Left Behind means no child left untested. I am happy that this conference report terminates the further use of the National Reporting System, an inappropriate, ineffective, and expensive testing regime.

This conference report notes that Head Start is not without the opportunity for evaluation, however, and there is strengthened program accountability at the Federal, regional, and local levels included in the legislation. The report also requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to initiate classroom evaluations, thereby ensuring optimal teacher-child interactions.

We have known for some time that when children are not provided high- quality day care and early childhood services, once in school, their academic achievement and limited language proficiencies become cumulatively worse over time, over grade levels, and across all subject areas. By passing this conference report, we build on the past 42 years of success for this program and help ensure that both Head Start children as well as our Nation as a whole have a brighter tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4156, the Orderly and Responsible Iraq Redeployment Appropriations Act. This bill will begin the long-overdue withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Yesterday, the President vetoed the Labor and Heath and Human Services-Education appropriations bill, which is the bill that provides funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, the Education Department, Pell Grants, and educational programs for the disadvantaged. He vetoed this bill because it contained a 2 percent increase over his request-- an increase of $10 billion in a Labor HHS bill of roughly $600 billion. The President opposes even a 2 percent increase in the funding for these programs.

Meanwhile, the President has requested almost $200 billion more for his failed war in Iraq. That would make the total cost of the war in Iraq so far to over $600 billion and climbing, with no end in sight. President Bush's refusal to change course in Iraq is shocking, his failure to allow adequate rest for our soldiers between tours of duty is outrageous, and his demand for another $200 billion blank check for his war in Iraq while vetoing LIHEAP for the poor, education for disadvantaged children, Pell Grants for college students, and research into cures for life threatening disease is simply unacceptable to this House. What a misplaced set of priorities.

Instead of the blank check for an endless war, this bill requires President Bush to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq within 30 days. Instead of unfairly sending inadequately equipped soldiers on multiple tours of duty, this bill prohibits the deployment of any troops who are not fully equipped and trained. And at the same time, this bill provides the necessary funds, in full, to our troops who are still in harm's way.

Our Republican colleagues must make a choice: will they stand with President Bush's attempt to throw more money and more young men and women into the mess in Iraq, or will they join with Democrats seeking a bipartisan agreement on redeploying American troops out of Iraq?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to specifically note a provision of this bill, which I wrote, to bar any funds in this bill from being used for the gruesome and indefensible practice of extraordinary rendition. I would like to commend and thank Chairman Obey and Chairman Murtha for again including this language, as they have in every defense appropriations and supplemental appropriations bill this year. Through the use of extraordinary rendition, as well as abusive interrogation techniques and extrajudicial incarceration of so-called ``enemy combatants,'' President Bush has largely forfeited the mantel of human rights champion which the United States has carried for so long. We must reclaim the international moral high-ground if we are to cure the root causes of terrorism around the world, and we can start by banning extraordinary rendition.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Chairman Obey for this strong and responsible bill, and urge all my colleagues to vote aye.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3403) to promote and enhance public safety by facilitating the rapid deployment of IP-enabled 911 and E-911 services, encouraging the nation's transition to a national IP-enabled emergency network and improve 911 and E-911 access to those with disabilities, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3403, introduced by Representative Bart Gordon, is designed to ensure that a consumer calling 911 in an emergency from an Internet phone, using so-called ``Voice over Internet Protocol,'' or VoIP service, can do so with a degree of confidence matching that of traditional phone service and wireless service.

The bill seeks to achieve this goal through two key provisions: The first provision extends liability protections to VoIP service providers. The Federal Communications Commission lacks authority to grant liability protection to VoIP service providers, and, therefore, Congress must take action to achieve this policy objective. This is similar to action this subcommittee took in 1999 when such liability protection was accorded to wireless providers.

The second key provision in the bill establishes the right of VoIP providers to access the parts of the 911 infrastructure they need in order to complete 911 calls for consumers. This is an important provision because while the FCC has acted to require VoIP providers to meet enhanced 911 service obligations, the commission did not order that such VoIP providers had a legal right to the components of the 911 infrastructure they would need to fulfill their E-911 obligations under the commission's own rules.

I want to commend Representative Gordon for his excellent work and leadership on this bill. We have endeavored, over the last several months, to work on a bipartisan basis through several issues, and the bill we bring to the House floor this afternoon reflects the results of these discussions. It is an excellent step forward.

I also want to salute Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Shimkus and Mr. Pickering for their work on this legislation and, as always, to commend the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Dingell; the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Barton; and my good friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) for their excellent efforts as well.

At this point, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would, once again, like to commend the bill to the Members. I also want to thank the staff, Mark Seifert, Amy Levine, David Vogel, Courtney Reinhard, and Dana Lichtenberg on the Democrat and Republican staffs for their excellent work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3919) to provide for a comprehensive nationwide inventory of existing broadband service, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise to suspend the rules and to pass the Broadband Census of America Act of 2007 because, Mr. Speaker, the overarching telecommunications policy goal of the United States is achieving ubiquitously available, competitive, high-speed, affordable broadband service to all Americans. Such broadband service capability is indispensable to various aspects of the United States economy, including public safety, education, entrepreneurial investment, innovation, job creation, health care delivery, and energy efficiency.

The ability of the United States to promote and achieve a competitive high-speed broadband infrastructure will also be a key factor in determining our Nation's success in the fiercely competitive global economy.

International competitors to the United States are achieving progress in broadband deployment and adoption. Many countries have broadband service capabilities superior to the United States in terms of choice, speed, and price.

For the United States, offering broadband service capability at ever higher transmission speeds could spur new growth in investment in cutting-edge applications, services, and technologies that utilize higher bandwidth functionality.

This bill represents an indispensable first step in developing an overarching blueprint for broadband policy in the United States. In brief, the Broadband Census of America Act tasked the Federal Communications Commission with collecting data from providers of broadband service capability throughout the country, and with developing a series of tiers for categorizing the speeds of such services.

The data collected will be disclosed to the public in an annual report that will include: one, the actual number of residential and business subscribers within each five-digit ZIP code with a list of the broadband technologies present in each ZIP code: and, two, the actual number of residential and business subscribers, correlated to each broadband speed tier identified by the FCC on a statewide basis.

This bill also encompasses a broadband mapping effort as well as community organization initiatives for unserved and underserved areas to increase knowledge of where, what type, and what speed of broadband service may be available.

The bill requires the National Telecommunications Information Agency to develop a national broadband availability map which will include the availability of broadband service capability at the nine-digit ZIP code level, census track level, or functional equivalent.

This is a very consumer-friendly mapping function and ``demand side'' identification initiative that consumer groups, the high-tech community and the telecommunications industry all support.

This map will be interactive and searchable by consumers, and at the providers' discretion will also indicate the type of technology and speed of service offered in that area.

The legislation also includes authorizations for grants to local planning entities and communities around the country. These grants are designed to increase broadband availability and usage in local communities through so-called ``demand side'' identification and other initiatives.

To better gauge how the country is performing compared to international competitors, the bill also requires the FCC to conduct a comparison of the extent of broadband service capability

abroad in 75 foreign communities with equivalent American communities.

This legislation reflects several months of negotiations. And I want to thank Mr. Upton from Michigan for his patient attention to this legislation. No legislation in telecommunications has received the detailed attention that this legislation has on a bipartisan basis, and for that I want to thank Mr. Upton.

I also want to thank the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Barton, for his work on this legislation. And of course on our side, Mr. Dingell and I worked with the minority towards achieving this legislation. And with the thanks of Mr. Dingell and myself, we once again want to point out how cooperative all of our working relationships were on this legislation.

It also has the support of consumer groups, the Communications Workers of America, NARUC Connect Kentucky, Qwest, and organizations representing the high-tech industry, the cable industry, the telephone industry, and the wireless industry.

I want to again thank Mr. Upton and Mr. Barton for their cooperation in working through the differences on this legislation, and to thank Mr. Dingell for his excellent work on this legislation.

I urge Members of the House to support this bill.

At this point, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Space), who has spent a considerable amount of time working on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I, as well, have no additional requests for speaking time. I would like to thank the staff who worked on this bill, Tim Powderly, Amy Levine, David Vogel, Neil Fried, Courtney Reinhard, thank you, Michael Beckerman, and I would like to thank Maureen Flood from my staff for her excellent work on this legislation. And to correct an oversight from the last piece of legislation, I would like to thank Colin Crowell, who has worked on both this bill and the last bill which just passed as well. I can't say enough about Colin and his work on all of these issues to bring them to a conclusion that is truly bipartisan and nonideological.

General Leave

I also ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3403, as amended, and H.R. 3919, as amended.

So with that, I again, highly recommend this piece of legislation to the Members. It is something that will give us the broadband overview that our country needs. We have been falling over the last 6 years in our international rankings. It is time for us to find out exactly where we are because it will help us to put together the policies that will make us No. 1 looking over our shoulders at No. 2 and 3 in the world.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker:

The Red Sox we proudly honor today

For another championship and remarkable play

That's two in four years, all of Beantown ``hurrays!''

It's not the curse, but clutch play, for these kings of

Fenway

We hail the team's defense, top-notch in the field

And a mighty potent offense that refuses to yield

From top to bottom, the Sox have shown

Why in baseball's history books they will forever be known

The club led by Henry, Werner, and Lucchino

And don't forget the dream team--Epstein and Tito!

But it's the players who win each big game

And they all belong in baseball's Hall of Fame

Josh Beckett, a baseball legend-in-the-making

He won 4 playoff games, leaving foes with heads shaking

And then there was Schilling, Dice-K, and Lester

With unhittable splitters, the batters they pestered.

Papelbon is the closer night after night

4 saves in the playoffs--to ``the Nation's'' delight

Youkilis at 1st , Mike Lowell the series MVP,

Rookies Pedroia, Okijima and Ellsbury

With Manny & Ortiz, everyone agrees

the Sox are the best, from sea to shining sea

And Jason Varitek we cannot forget

From all in the clubhouse, he commands respect

After 96 wins, the playoffs in full swing

The Angels came calling, but the Sox clipped their wings

Down 3-1 to the Tribe, the Sox won it in seven

Two pennants in 4 years, we were in baseball heaven!

Then the Sox faced the tough Colorado team

Sweeping in just 4, completing the ``possible dream''!

Now the games are all played, the champagne popped and poured

Fire up those duck boats--let's all climb aboard!

Another great season, fans and experts agree

The Sox are the newest baseball dynasty.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1483, the ``Celebrating America's Heritage Act,'' which would, in part, designate the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Freedom's Way National Heritage Area would recognize the important historical contributions made by communities throughout New England to the historic events of the American Revolution.

This new heritage area would include the communities of Arlington, Lexington, Lincoln, Malden, Medford, and Wobum in my district along with 39 other communities throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire that played a role in the birth of our Nation.

H.R. 1483 would allow for cooperation between the communities in the heritage area and the National Park Service to conserve these special places and develop increased recreational and educational opportunities for these tremendous resources.

I am proud to support the creation of this important new National Heritage Area, which will help preserve the unique history of New England. Sometimes we forget that the small towns and cities where we were born and live are also the birthplace of this great Nation. The Freedom's Way National Heritage Area designation will ensure that future generations will be able to visit, tour and learn about the communities in New England that shaped our young Nation.

This heritage area designation will allow for the commemoration of the important role that these New England communities played in shaping our Nation and I urge passage of the bill.

Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to mark the passing of my friend Randall Forsberg, but it is with pride, admiration, and thankfulness that I remember her enormous contributions to the cause of nuclear disarmament.

Randy Forsberg was the mother of the Nuclear Freeze movement. When she was a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, she put forward a simple and inspired proposal: to end the ``testing, production, and deployment'' of all nuclear weapons everywhere. With her ``Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,'' and her tireless advocacy for a nuclear weapons freeze, Randy galvanized a national grassroots campaign to end the threat of nuclear weapons.

I was proud to introduce the very first nuclear freeze resolution in the Congress, and to work for its successful passage on the House floor in the spring of 1983. That vote shocked many within the dusty confines of the foreign policy establishment, who simply could not comprehend that ordinary citizens understood the unique and intolerable threat of nuclear weapons and that the American public would demand a fundamentally different course be set. Randy was at the center of the Nuclear Freeze throughout the country, and was a guiding light to many who believed in the necessity of the Nuclear Freeze. While the Freeze did not pass in the Senate, the activism that this movement created led the Congress to pass other legislation to cut in half the proposed size of the MX missile force, ban anti-satellite weapons testing in space, cut funding for Star Wars missile defenses, and to propose a moratorium on underground nuclear weapons testing. Those Congressional initiatives, in turn, led the Reagan Administration--which came to office opposed to arms control--to sign the START and INF treaties with the Soviet Union.

In order to advance a nuclear weapons freeze, Randy founded the Institute for Defense & Disarmament Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1980. Since that time, IDDS has been an important part of the arms control community in the United States and abroad. Through its numerous publications, including its World Arms Database, IDDS has provided vital information and analysis to both policy makers and the public at large.

Randy Forsberg passed away last Friday night, ending a long battle with endometrial cancer during which she had shown incredible bravery and dignity. My thoughts and prayers are with her daughter, Katarina Lilly, her mother, Genie Watson, and her sister, Celia Seupel.

With Randy Forsberg's death, the world has lost an eloquent and inspired advocate for nuclear disarmament. But the cause to which she devoted her life endures, and her example serves to inspire others who share her dream of a world without nuclear weapons.

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the ``Broadband Census of America

Act of 2007.'' The legislation introduced today reflects the version of the bill as approved by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet less than two weeks ago. The bill will continue to undergo refinement in the Energy and Commerce Committee and my ongoing goal is to work toward a bipartisan, consensus bill.

The objectives of this bill are two-fold. First, to gain a better assessment of how America is doing in broadband service deployment and adoption, the bill will obtain information on the types and speed of broadband service subscribers utilize and the extent of such adoption for the residential and business market in areas at the 5-digit zip code level. Second, the bill will seek to develop a national, interactive map of broadband service availability for use by consumers. This map will help to identify areas of the country where service does not exist and also assist consumers in ascertaining which broadband service providers are available in their neighborhood.

I believe at this point there is growing consensus--if not unanimity--around the fact that current data collection methods used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are inadequate and highly flawed. Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a 5- digit zip code as indicating the entire zip code has broadband availability, even if the sole subscriber is a business and not a residential consumer. This can lead to highly inaccurate and overly generous notions of actual broadband availability and use, particularly in rural areas where zip codes are quite large.

In addition, under almost any set of measurements, the United States lags other nations not only in availability and speed but also in the value. The 50 Megabit per second service in Japan, for instance, is available to Japanese consumers for roughly $30. Here in the U.S., consumers typically pay $20 for about 1 Megabit of service and $30 to 40 for roughly 4 Megabits of service. This legislation will task the FCC with identifying tiers of increasing data transmission speeds, for both upstream and downstream attributes. These tiers will describe existing broadband service capability deployed in the Nation and are designed to the extent possible to correspond to a service's ability to support qualitatively different applications and services. Identifying such tiers and the services which apply to them will enable policymakers to gauge the broadband service speeds that are being subscribed to by residential consumers and by small and large businesses and will also allow for trends to be seen in such adoption over a period of time.

The lack of such information today leaves policymakers largely in the dark about the nature and extent of broadband service deployment and adoption in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the country. The state of knowledge around the status of broadband services in the United States directly affects the ability of policymakers to make sound decisions. For instance, the Federal government can do a much better job in reforming multi-billion dollar grant and subsidy programs-- whether at the Rural Utilities Service or at the FCC--if we have better data on where we truly need to target government assistance. Similarly, States can focus limited State resources for economic assistance, computer adoption, and broadband promotion if ample and accurate data is available indicating where such resources should be deployed.

This is precisely what has happened in Kentucky. ConnectKentucky has been a wildly successful effort and has demonstrated the palpable benefits to mapping broadband for various public policy benefits.

The risks of not developing national data will undermine our goal of achieving a national plan for universal, affordable broadband. This, in turn, adversely affects consumers and communities across the Nation. The benefits of higher speeds, lower prices, and more choices for broadband services include greater economic opportunity, job creation, worker productivity, access to health care and educational resources, promotion of innovation, and global competitiveness.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to working with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, Ranking Member Joe Barton, Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Ranking Member Fred Upton, as well as my other House colleagues on this bill as the process continues.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from Massachusetts, the Honorable Niki S. Tsongas, be permitted to take the oath of office today.

Her certificate of election has not arrived, but there is no contest and no question has been raised with regard to her election.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, it is my great pleasure and privilege to introduce the newest Member of the 110th Congress, the gentlelady from the Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts, Niki Tsongas.

Niki Tsongas is the eldest of four sisters who grew up in a military family bouncing between air bases all across the United States, Europe, and Japan. In 1967, while her father was stationed at the Pentagon, she met her future husband, our late distinguished House colleague, Paul Tsongas, while he was working just across the street as an intern in the office of then Fifth District Congressman Brad Morse.

Niki was Paul's soul mate and his strongest supporter when he ran successfully to join us here in the House of Representatives in January of 1975 and for the Senate in 1978. She was at Paul's side when he ran for the Presidency in 1992 and when he fought so valiantly against the cancer that finally claimed him in 1997.

Over the years, Niki Tsongas has been a social worker, a community leader in Lowell, a lawyer, and an educator. As a community leader, she has had a passion for social and environmental justice, which she brings with her as she arrives in Congress. And through it all, she was an amazing mother to three daughters, Ashley, Katina and Molly.

Lowell and the Merrimack Valley has a strong industrial past, and nobody will better represent the roll-up-your-sleeves, hard work persona of this area like Niki Tsongas.

In January, our delegation was proud to cast our votes for the first female Speaker of the House. Today, I am proud to introduce the first female Member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation in 25 years.

I give you the distinguished gentlelady from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of H.R. 3087.

H.R. 3087 requires the Secretary of Defense to report to the Congress within 60 days, and every 90 days thereafter, ``on the status of planning for the redeployment of the Armed Forces from Iraq.'' This bill specifies that the Pentagon is to describe a range of different possible scenarios for withdrawal, and create multiple timelines for completion of withdrawal. These reports will be valuable to the Congress as it carries out its oversight responsibilities and considers future legislation regarding Iraq. While it is necessary to require the Department of Defense to draft plans for withdrawal for Iraq, it is not sufficient. President Bush must finally implement these withdrawal plans so that our brave men and women can return home to their families having served honorably under extremely difficult conditions.

It is clear that President Bush is content to allow the next President to clean up his mess in Iraq, and that is a travesty. The bill that we are considering today will at least make that job slightly easier for the next President, as the Pentagon will have already drawn up detailed plans for our withdrawal from Iraq. As we know only too well today, responsible planning and foresight was one of the earliest casualties of President Bush's war in Iraq. If the Congress must force such planning to be done, so be it.

Mr. Speaker, while I support H.R. 3087 and encourage all members to vote for its passage today, it is tragic that due to opposition from Republican leaders in the Congress and veto threats by the President, we have not yet been able to make further progress on withdrawing our troops from Iraq. There was no connection between the 9/11 attacks and Saddam Hussein and no nuclear weapons in the sands of Iraq, yet the President seems to have no intention of bringing this mistaken and ill- conceived war to an end. It is a war that has made the United States less secure, yet the President refuses to even begin thinking about a new strategy. It is long past time for the United States to hand over security in Iraq to the Iraqis, and I hope that this bill will move us closer to that goal.

Mr. Speaker, this week the world convened at the United Nations to combat climate change, but President Bush stayed away.

While the rest of the world knows that carbon dioxide threatens the planet, this administration can't even decide if it endangers the planet.

President Bush's response is not action, but talk. Instead of stopping the pollution, he starts a filibuster.

President Bush has decided to host a conversation to discuss his aspiration for procrastination on global warming until he leaves office. It is time for America to save the planet from another 50 years of red, white and blue CO2. It is time for America to use its technological genius to launch a new future of clean power, new jobs, and lower cost.

We have no choice. The ice is melting. The coral is dying. The forests are burning, and 30 percent of all species are in danger of extinction.

President Bush, it is time to stop the empty rhetoric and to start saving the planet.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this compromise legislation which will provide healthcare for 10 million low-income American children.

This bill will give 4 million currently uninsured children a healthy start in life.

Yet in a confirmation of the White House's pitiless priorities, President Bush is threatening to veto this bill if we spend any more than $5 billion dollars over 5 years to help poor American children get health care.

This year alone, the President requested 40 times that amount--$200 billion dollars--for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet he has threatened to veto SCHIP on the basis that it spends too much money on American children.

The President constantly chooses Corporations over Children, spending billions on tax cuts for millionaires and subsidies for his friends in big oil without batting an eyelash. But when it comes to giving our country's poor children health care, he can't find the heart to come up with the money.

Today's debate is a major moment in the history of health care, and a veto will place the President firmly on the wrong side of history.

By vetoing this bill, President Bush will expose himself as a Compassionless Conservative.

By vetoing SCHIP, the President will dash hopes of millions of working families who dreamed that they would be able to provide health care for their sick children.

I urge you to stand with those working families and help their children get the health care they need. Vote yes on this critical legislation.

First of all, I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, and Chairman Dingell, your staffs, Mr. Waxman, Ranking Member Barton and Mr. Deal, all the Members on the Republican side for the product that is here, all of the staff which has worked on it for so long. My own staff, Kate Bazinsky, who is sitting right here, just was married 2 months ago, this has definitely affected those first 2 months of marriage, the incredible negotiations that have taken place to reach this point, along with Mark Bayer who was working on the privacy parts of this legislation with your staffs. I congratulate everyone.

I am pleased that the final bill before us today retains the core drug safety and clinical trial provisions from the bill that Congressman Waxman and I introduced in March, which will improve transparency at the FDA and make drugs safer. Although I had hoped the sunset would be removed from the pediatric rule and less exclusivity given to blockbuster products under the pediatric incentive program, this bill is a historic achievement which will make drugs and medical devices safer for consumers around the world.

The past several years have been marked by drug scandal after drug scandal, Vioxx, Ketek, Paxil and Avandia. These drugs have harmed families across the country and come to symbolize the urgent need for reform at the FDA. Taking drugs should not be a game of RX roulette, and yet the FDA's current system is broken, and thousands of American families have been harmed by drugs with dangerous side effects.

Today, the House is responding to those failures. The bill is a victory for consumers and for patients. The bill will empower the FDA with important new authorities to mandate label changes and require postmarket studies. However, these new FDA authorities do not change the responsibility of companies to maintain drug labels and warn the public about risk.

For the first time ever, the FDA will have the power to impose civil monetary penalties on companies that fail to conduct required postmarket studies. It will also establish a new postmarket risk identification and analysis system to identify harmful side effects without compromising patient privacy.

Since 2004, I have been fighting for a mandatory clinical trial registry and results database which will ensure that the public has accurate and complete information about drugs and devices.

This bill will create that mandatory clinical trials database.

I am also extremely pleased that the FDA package includes language from the Markey-Rogers pediatric devices bill which is a major step forward for getting better and better devices for kids.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the chairman from New Jersey for all his great work.